Sony has canceled PlayStation Experience this year due to a lack of announcements

Sony’s PlayStation
Experience served as the launching pad for dozens of new video
games and services.
Reuters/Kevork
Djansezian

• Sony’s PlayStation Experience will not be held in North
  America for the first time since its launch in 2014.
• Sony Worldwide Studios Chairman Shawn Layden said the event
  was canceled due to a lack of major announcements.
• The PlayStation 4 remains the most popular video game console
  in the world, and Sony plans to increase communication with fans
  moving forward.

Sony’s annual PlayStation Experience video game conference
will not take place in 2018 due to a lack of new
announcements, Sony Worldwide Studios Chairman Shawn Layden
has confirmed.

In past years, PlayStation Experience has been the launching
pad for Sony’s biggest reveals. But the PlayStation 4 has
dominated the console market this year with major releases like
“Marvel’s Spider-Man” and
“God of War,” leaving Sony
with just a few exclusive titles to promote going into 2019.

“We wouldn’t have enough to bring people all together in some
location in North America to have that event,” Layden said during
Sony’s promotional blogcast. “We don’t want
to set expectations really high and not deliver on it. It was a
hard decision, but we have determined that this year we will not
hold PlayStation Experience.”

Layden said the company didn’t want to disappoint fans with a
lack of meaningful news. Instead, Sony will focus on providing
more frequent updates and communication to keep fans excited for
the future of PlayStation.

During the blogcast, Layden said Sony is still preparing
previously announced games, like “Days Gone” and “Dreams,” for
release in 2019, but those didn’t warrant a full
conference.  

Released in early
September, “Marvel’s Spider-Man” is the fastest-selling
PlayStation 4 game of all time with more than 3 million copies
sold.
Insomniac
Games/Marvel

The current iteration of PlayStation Experience was launched in
2014 as a celebration of PlayStation’s 20th anniversary. Along
with announcing new games, PlayStation Experience offered panel
discussions with developers, hands-on demos, and dozens of
exhibitors over the course of a weekend.

Layden said the original goal of the event was to gather fans and
bring them closer to Sony’s new first party titles.

Fans
of “The Last of Us” will need to wait a bit longer for news about
the sequel.
Sony

But even without the excitement of PlayStation Experience, PS4
owners can still look forward to exclusive games like “The Last
of Us: Part II” and “Ghost of Tsushima.” Plus, “God of War” and
“Spider-Man” both set sales records for the PlayStation 4 this
year, and the console continues to sell better than Microsoft’s
Xbox One or the newer Nintendo Switch.

Despite its sales advantage over the other consoles, Sony
recently opened the doors to crossplay
with other platforms. “Fortnite: Battle Royale” is the first game
to allow PlayStation gamers to play with people on other
consoles, but Sony has hinted that other games will soon be
following suit.

Sony also rolled out full PS2 and PS4 game downloads for PlayStation Now subscribers in
September, placing the service in direct competition with the
Xbox Game Pass.